IRF Drives Compliance and Revenue Protection with MediLinks

Success Story: Aspirus Wausau Hospital Inpatient Rehab

With MediLinks, clinical processes are streamlined to increase efficiency and revenue.

At Aspirus Wausau Hospital’s inpatient rehab facility (IRF), clinicians used a manual scheduling system to track patient care. This “whiteboard method” and paper documentation made it difficult to track three-hour-rule compliance during audits and led to inconsistencies in important patient scheduling processes. In addition, clinicians rated patients with subjective FIM scores, which led to lower reimbursement rates.

Since adding MediLinks into to its Wisconsin facility and integrating it with the facilitywide electronic medical record (EMR) system, Aspirus Wausau Hospital’s IRF can now:

Monitor clinicians and patient scheduling in real time with new digital processes

“If we had to manually track what MediLinks can do, we’d need to hire another full-time person.”

Nicole Trempe, Manager of Rehabilitation

Automatic three-hour compliance

Prior to MediLinks, Aspirus clinicians identified that the hospital’s EMR had a shortfall—the lack of three-hour tracking and reporting tools. Manually tracking each patient’s scheduled and delivered care wasted valuable time and increased the risk for reimbursement inconsistencies. “The biggest thing we needed was three-hour tracking and reporting. Alone, our EMR can’t do what MediLinks does,” Nicole Trempe, manager of rehabilitation, said. Now, as Aspirus clinicians enter patients’ treatment data, MediLinks automatically monitors their progress toward the three hours required for reimbursement from CMS. When audits arise, clinicians aren’t left digging through folders of paper. Evidence of proper patient care is easily accessed electronically within minutes. “When we recently got audited by CMS, we were quickly able to pull 40 three-hour reports,” Trempe said. “Before MediLinks, we tracked on paper charts, and that would have taken hours upon hours to pull what we needed.”

Consistent FIM scores

Aspirus IRF aimed to maximize reimbursements by standardizing the collection of FIM scores. Because subjectivity in FIM scoring decreased the interrater reliability of the FIM tool, the IRF wasn’t always receiving the maximum reimbursement for each patient. With MediLinks’ objective FIM scoring tools, the IRF clinicians at Aspirus provide consistent, accurate scores for every patient. Early on, the new system translated directly into increased revenue. “During our trial of MediLinks, we were able to increase payment by $800 for every stroke diagnosis,” stated Kim Krohn-Rick, supervisor of therapy.

Smooth scheduling

Before the IRF integrated MediLinks with its hospital wide EMR, clinicians relied on three white boards in three different rooms to track patient scheduling. Because of the dynamic clinical environment, changes made on one white board often wouldn’t make it to the other two. Manual scheduling created confusion for patients and clinicians alike. “It was inefficient,” Krohn-Rick explained. “Manual scheduling would cause issues for families and patients because we wouldn’t have the correct treatment times listed for them.” Today, clinicians can track and update patient scheduling in real time at monitors throughout the unit. This way, last-minute changes are immediately known to patients, families, and care providers. Aspirus Wausau Hospital IRF boosted efficiency with MediLinks’ standardized FIM scoring, automatic three-hour compliance, and seamless scheduling processes. The software has become so critical to the facility’s operations that, according to Trempe, it simply couldn’t function as efficiently without it.

Bill Miller is the CEO of Mediware and a recognized leader in the healthcare industry. He has a rich background that includes a more than 20 year history of bringing groundbreaking growth strategies and technological innovation to the healthcare marketplace and a proven track record of launching and leading highly successful healthcare IT companies. Prior to joining Mediware in July 2017, Bill was the CEO of OptumInsight, a division of Optum, which is the health services platform of UnitedHealth Group. Under Bill’s leadership, OptumInsight experienced unprecedented revenue growth, expanded margins, and claimed a transformative position in the health services market. He led the evolution of Optum into the leader in health care analytics and launched several tech-enabled business platforms. Prior to OptumInsight, Bill served as senior vice president of technologies at Cerner Corporation, where he had global responsibility for the company’s managed services, outsourcing, and technology services business units. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Bill holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in urban planning and public policy.

Chris HesterPresident, Home Care

Chris Hester founded Kinnser Software in 2003, when he developed an innovative web-based application for home health agencies. He served as the company’s president for 14 years of rapid growth, which saw Kinnser become the most widely used EMR in home health and expand into new markets, including hospice and private duty home care. Kinnser Software was acquired by Mediware in June 2017. Today, Chris serves as president of Mediware’s home care division, which includes applications for home care, home health, and rehabilitation.

Rob WeberPresident, Community Care

Rob Weber serves as president of Mediware’s diverse community care division, overseeing applications for behavioral health, homeless management, long-term services and supports, medication management, and blood management. Rob has held this position since 2017, and he previously also managed many of Mediware’s other clinical applications, including blood services and medication management. Rob joined Mediware in January 2004, originally serving as executive vice president and general counsel, and he continues to serve as the company’s general counsel for legal and regulatory matters.

Robert WatkinsChief Financial Officer

Robert “Bob” Watkins started at Mediware as corporate controller in 2008. In 2011, he was promoted to vice president and corporate controller and to CFO in 2012. Prior to joining Mediware, Bob held a number of financial management positions, including serving as corporate controller for Titan Machinery (TITN), a $1 billion provider of agricultural and construction equipment. His prior experience also includes a corporate controller position at AFS Financial, where he also served as chief financial officer. Bob is a current member of the AICPA and Financial Executives International.

Joel DolisyChief Technology Officer

In his role as chief technology officer, Joel Dolisy manages both product development and information technology for Mediware. Before joining Mediware as CTO, Joel was CTO of Kinnser Software, where he led the company’s engineering and product organizations. Before Kinnser, Joel was SVP, CTO, and CIO for SolarWinds, a leading provider of IT management software. With more than 20 years of experience in product strategy and software engineering, Joel is a leader in developing and delivering commercial software products to market.

Chris StansburyExecutive Vice President, Growth

As executive vice president of growth, Chris Stansbury works with all sales teams within Mediware to create and standardize best practices for selling, interacting, contracting, and negotiating with clients. With over 25 years of health care IT services sales leadership, Chris has experience in all aspects of health care, including the provider side when he was at Cerner, the payer side when he was at TriZetto, and the Wellness side as he most recently was a vice president at Welltok.

As the senior vice president of marketing and communications, Shoma Sarkar Thomas oversees the marketing strategy for all Mediware products and is responsible for building the Mediware brand, which includes public relations, communications, and all strategic marketing activities. Previously, Shoma served as vice president of marketing for Kinnser Software, where she led marketing and strategic growth initiatives. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations from the University of Virginia.

Stephen GreenbergSVP of Human and Social Services

Stephen (Steve) Greenberg is responsible for Mediware’s Homeless & Community, Behavioral Health and LTSS businesses. Prior to joining Mediware, Steve was President of DecisionHealth, LLC for six years, after which time he successfully helped execute the sale of this revenue cycle management decision-support company. Before that, he worked at OptumInsight for 12 years as a senior leader of many of its provider software and service solutions and, in his last role as SVP, Government Solutions, built a prospective and retrospective fraud, waste and abuse detection capability for UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare and Medicaid businesses.

Dana StreckSenior Vice President, Human Capital

Dana Streck leads Mediware’s human capital organization. Before joining Mediware, Dana was senior director of workforce transitions for Cerner Corporation, where she welcomed and transitioned new team members into Cerner through client partnerships and acquisitions. With more than 15 years of experience in human resources, Dana has successfully partnered with business leaders to drive workforce initiatives that benefit both companies and clients, while simultaneously creating environments that support growth and innovation.

Jason BakerVP, Corporate Development

As vice president of corporate development for Mediware, Jason Baker is responsible for acquisitions, partnerships, and new market strategies. Prior to joining Mediware, he was a managing director for Alpine Healthcare Advisors and Healthcare Growth Partners, both of which provide investment banking services in healthcare technology and services. Jason also served as head corporate development executive for Cerner Corporation. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri.

Wes LittleVice President, Applied Insights

As vice president of analytics, Wes Little leads Mediware’s unified analytics strategy to deliver data-driven insights and innovative solutions. He previously served as director of product management for Kinnser Software, where he oversaw rapid product innovation for the company’s home health electronic medical record software. Wes holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington and Lee University.